


Finally Something to Be Grateful For

by lizard444



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, post episode 24
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-03 13:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5293250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizard444/pseuds/lizard444
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Our gang in a high school AU. However, this isn't your typical slice of life love story. An endless war between the arts and STEM is a better war than that between Earth and Mars, after all. </p><p>~*Please read the notes!! There's a very important explanation/message there.*~</p><p>P.S. Credit given where credit is due, the idea that inspired the plot of this fic came from a few images on pixiv of a fan-artist who had drawn a doujin of InahoxSlaine in a high school AU in which Inaho is a manga artist and has a crush on Slaine~or something like that?~ It was not in a language I can read, and I long lost the link to it. However, this fic is not really completely about that. Even though at first it might seem like it. I have much surprising stuff to come in later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. September-First Day (Part 1)

**Author's Note:**

> "is this thing on?"
> 
> uh...uhm... Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to all! It may be an American holiday, but my gratitude extends beyond this country's borders. This is a holiday focused on being thankful for anything and everything, and y'all are a part of my everything.
> 
> I am writing this fic as a huge thank you to all the orangebat/InaSure/SureIna fan authors/artists/video-makers/translators, who have contributed something juicy at some point to the fandom, and whose work I have had the honors to read/see/watch.
> 
> You are all amazing and I am so thankful for your constant hard work in to turning this sour show in to a sugar delight. Thank you! I wish I could express my gratefulness with something better than my crummy writing, but I hope y'all find some enjoyment in it the same way I find enjoyment in your works.
> 
> Also, this may be a gift to all of you, but let's face it, I wouldn't have made the extra effort to show my embarrassing writing skills (and spend so much luxury free time which an engineering major such as myself just doesn't have), had it not been for a particular InaSure fanfic artist who has inspired me in every single way. Yes, I'm talking about you, miss Psychic. 
> 
> Okay, I hope y'all can enjoy this and if there are any grammar or cultural errors, please let me know and I will try to fix them. I'm working on this by myself, so there are bound to be mistakes here and there and I apologize ahead of time. 
> 
> From your biggest fan, with gratitude,
> 
> Lizard444/Liz
> 
> P.S. Updates: Complete chapters posted every week as to not freak you out by posting everything at once.

The cloudless sky shone brightly on a peculiar pale blonde’s back as he made the short climb up the small hill that separated him from the school he would be attending. Upon seeing the top of the building, the blond picked up his pace.

“We have a new student among us today. I hope everyone can welcome him. Please stand, Slaine.”

The scenario was, for the fiftieth time today, replaying within his head, Slaine was overly excited about today. Slaine’s father was a well-recognized doctor, but a few years after Slaine was born, he became overwhelmingly immersed on his bio-Nano-technology research.

This new profession consumed his every second of leisure time. Soon, Slaine’s father was asked to travel outside of Japan more often and for longer periods of time. Slaine’s mother became fed up and the last time Slaine saw her was at age ten.

His father was about to board a plane to America. Slaine’s mother asked Slaine if he’d like to accompany his father to America or if he’d like to stay with her. The idea of being able to be on a plane brought excitement to the young kid who begged to accompany his father in his trip.

The last memory of his mother was of her back as she left the airport terminal. His father held him in his arms. Slaine’s father’s face was that of determination and not sorrow as they boarded the plane.

After America, there was Germany, Singapore, and Sweden. After Sweden, Slaine’s father was called in to work for the Aldnoah nano-tech company’s new base in Japan. Company founder, Ray regalia Vers Envers, had relayed him the message and even offered Slaine a spot in Shinawara High, a high school recognized as the leader STEM guided school of the area and also was the high school the lovely Asseylum Vers Allusia attended.

When living in Japan, Slaine and Asseylum had become good friends and had kept up correspondence no matter where Slaine would move to. Well, most of those letters were from Slaine, but it still counts, right? 

Slaine walked in to the school’s main office. Once there, he was directed down a narrow hall and in to the principal’s office. 

“Slaine Troyard. It’s nice to finally meet the son of Doctor Troyard. I’m glad you made it on time on your first day of class”

Greeted a cold voice as he stepped in to the principal’s office. Slaine vowed and returned the greeting. 

“Magbaredge-sensei, it is nice to meet you as well. I-“  
“Here is your class schedule for today. Please make sure you are in your first class at exactly seven o’clock. Professor Cruhteo hates late students, so I’ve been told.”

A loud gasp and the sound of falling of boxes invaded the room from the narrow hallway that Slaine had walked in from. Rapid footsteps were then heard from the opposite side. Out of the corner of his eyes, Slaine saw someone walk past the principal’s office.

“Kaizuka junior”, commanded the woman as Slaine glanced through the schedule now resting in his hand.

“Inaho Kaizuka, ma’am”, corrected the boy that appeared at the doorway. He wore a blank expression and an orange backpack on his back.

“This here is Slaine Troyard, a new transfer student. Please show him where his first class is located.”

“I’ll do that once I help professor Yuki from out under those boxes”, he replied as he suddenly disappeared in to the hallway once more.

A moment of awkward silence engulfed the room as Slaine stood completely still while looking at his classes.

“You’re dismissed, Troyard”, the principal demanded in a cold stern voice.

“Ah…uh…y-yes ma’am!” Slaine replied, a little too loudly. He quickly vowed and went the direction he had seen the young brunet boy run of to. 

////


	2. September-First Day (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of Slaine's first day didn't quite go as planned.
> 
> >>My English teacher taught us that the first chapter of a work of literature gives the reader a hint of what the entire work will be about.

Straight down the hall was the teacher’s office. Within that office was Ms. Yuki Kaizuka’s tiny desk space. It was small, but she had fought hard to earn the position as one of the school’s guidance counselors. She had been hoping to have a large desk area where she could easily store many of the items which she usually forgot to bring with her from home. However, this was not the case as the desk area that was assigned to her was probably added last minute.

 

“I told you to wait for me and that you couldn’t carry all those boxes by yourself, Yuki-nee”, Inaho said as he walked in to see boxes scattered across the floor in the entrance to the teacher’s office.

 

“I just wanted to make the least amount of trips possible”

 

“You forgot to access for the possible”

 

“Don’t lecture me, Nao! Plus, I did carry them all here safely. I lost balance until I was already inside the office.”

 

“Uhm… excuse me?”

 

The different voice calling from beyond the office door put Yuki on high alert. She composed her frustration and looked up. On the doorway stood a young pale haired boy that seemed to be around Inaho’s age. She moved to greet him.

 

“Hi there! Are you a new friend of Inaho’s? Are you here to help us move these to the new club room?”

 

“ah...err… I…”

 

“No. I have to walk him to class, but it would be more efficient if he helped out,” Inaho said as he looked at Slaine in the eye. Seeing as he was not moving his gaze, Slaine guessed it was Inaho’s way of asking, “are you in?” and so he answered, “w-well, I was told that I had to be at my class on time. But, there is still some time until classes begin, so I guess I could help until then.”

 

“Great! Thank you! With your help, we’ll be able to take all of these at once.” As the young woman spoke, Inaho began stacking some of the boxes on Slaine’s arms.

 

_Too heavy…what’s even in here?_

 

He didn’t have a chance to voice out his thoughts as the young woman continued speaking.

 

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t even introduce myself! I’m Yuki Kaizuka, a new vocational guidance counselor here. I guess you could say it’s the first day for both of us,” Yuki said as she gave Slaine a bright smile. Then, she grabbed a few boxes herself.

 

“Nice to meet you Ms. Kaizuka. My name is Slaine Troyard-”

 

“Oh! You’re that new transfer student that all the teachers have been talking about! You’re the son of a really famous doctor or something like that, right?”

 

Yuki asked as she began walking out the tiny office to lead the way.

 

“Something like that”, Slaine responded as he followed Yuki and Inaho out of the office.

 

///

 

The school was not bigger than other foreign schools he has attended, but it was definitely more confusing. After three turns down hallways and a flight of stairs, Slaine was completely lost. In hindsight, he was grateful to principal Magbaredge for having Inaho be in charge of escorting him to class. If he weren’t following the Kaizuka’s, he would’ve been lost as soon as he walked out the principal’s office.

 

Slaine’s train of thought came to a halt as Yuki’s voice became audible.

 

“Well, here we are,” she said as they all stood in front of a particular classroom that seemed to have been unused for a very long time. The door had rust along the edges and the windows were opaque with dust. Yuki put down her boxes by the door and took out a ring of keys from her pocket. She unlocked the door and slowly turned the knob, but she did not open the door.

 

“As a matter of fact,” she began as she pulled her hand away from the door as if it had burnt her, “Nao, why don’t you go in first?”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because this art room hasn’t been used in what seems like decades! I don’t want to open the door and see a decomposing corpse in there… or worse… an entire family of cockroaches! Don’t you want to show off how brave you are to your new friend?”

 

“I disagree. I think Slaine should go in first instead”, Inaho said as he also put his boxes down beside Yuki’s stack.

 

“Huh?” was all Slaine could verbalize as he was suddenly pushed through the door. He almost dropped the boxes from the push, but thankfully he regained balance as he stood inside the dark, abandoned classroom.

 

He turned to look at Yuki and Inaho on the other side of the doorway with a confused look on his face.

 

“Try turning on the lights, Slaine”, Yuki said with embarrassment and fright in her voice.

 

Slaine looked for a light switch which took more than a minute to find since it was not right beside the door frame. With the very dim light coming from the dirty windows behind him, Slaine could make out a light switch a few steps away. He walked over, balanced the boxes with one arm, and flipped the switch with the other.

 

What happened next did not fully register in Slaine’s mind. Something came flying towards his face. When he tried dodging it, he lost his balance and with it, his grip on the boxes. He heard a yelp coming from outside and the sound of wings flapping. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the contents of one of the boxes he was carrying were now scattered across the floor.

 

His first thought as he saw the contents was

 

_Books?_

 

Followed by

 

_No, these are…_

 

He took the closest one to him and examined the cover. The illustration in the cover was that of two men. They were standing close to each other. The one on the left was pointing a gun to the man on the right with his left hand, while his right hand rested on the other’s chest.

 

“y-yaoi?!” Slaine exclaimed as he let the book drop and he turned around in horror.

 

“Out of all the boxes, you had to give that one to him, Nao?”, Yuki whined as she walked in to see a blushing Slaine sitting on the floor next to a large collection of yaoi manga.

 

“I had no knowledge of the contents”, stated Inaho as he entered the room as well. He squat down in front of Slaine to begin picking up the novels.

 

“Slaine, don’t let this discourage you. If you still want to join the UFE club, I swear we won’t force you to read yaoi.”

 

“UFE?” asked Slaine as he came to and began helping Inaho clean up the mess of the scattered books.

 

“Uniting Fine-arts and Entertainment club. Nao’s friends decided to start it this year, but so far they only have five members.”

 

“I thought the Versian robotics club was the only extra-curricular option on campus”, replied Slaine as he closed the box packed with yaoi manga. He tried avoiding the thought of the contents inside the box as he pushed it against the wall.

 

“Well, the Versian Robo Club is the pride and honor of this school, but there are a few others too,” Yuki began to explain. “Most of the clubs’ funding goes towards the Versian Robo Club too, because of the same reason. This is a STEM focused school, so many of the culture or arts clubs are not encouraged or supported.”

 

“There used to be art classes taught in this very same room,” Yuki continued as she ran her fingers across a dusty desk with a look of nostalgia on her face. “But, they were cancelled as soon as the school got the approval to do so from the higher ups.” She looked at her now dust covered fingers with disgust and started wiping them off on her skirt.

 

“Anyway, I hope you give this club a chance, for the sake of Nao and his friends.”

 

“Yes, ma’am”, Slaine replied as he walked outside to carry in the remaining boxes that Yuki and Inaho had left outside the door. Inaho moved to help him, and when they were done stacking them against the wall, Inaho stated with a monotonous voice, “You’re going to be two minutes late to class, bat”.

 

Slaine looked over his shoulder to look at Inaho.

 

“By bat, you mean me?”

 

As soon as the sentence left his mouth, the school bell rang. Slaine quickly took out his phone to look at the time. Exactly 8:45 AM.

 

“Let’s go”, Inaho said as he quickly walked out of the room.

 

“Bye Slaine! Sorry to keep you!” yelled a worried Yuki as Slaine broke out in to a panicked run after Inaho.

 

“W-why didn’t you say anything…? In-… o-orange!”

 

Inaho suddenly stopped. Slaine passed him, but stopped a little way away to look back at Inaho who was looking at his own orange backpack strap.

 

“I have better nicknaming abilities than you, bat”, he said.

 

“Just! Hurry up and show me where my class is!” Slaine pleaded as a faint blush came to his cheeks. Inaho began walking fast again.

 

“And why are you calling me bat? Is it a reference to one of your manga?”

 

“No. When you turned on the light in the classroom, a bat flied past you and escaped the room.”

 

“A WHAT?!”

 

They went down three flights of stairs before reaching the tenth grade classrooms.

 

“What’s your class number?”

 

“1-A,” Slaine replied as he took out his folded schedule that had been stashed in his coat pocket.

 

“You’re toast, bat”, said Inaho as he came to a stop. He pointed down the hall. “Your classroom is the third door. This is mine.”

“Am I supposed to just-”, before he finished, Inaho opened his assigned classroom’s door and entered through it.

 

Slaine sighed and approached his classroom. He was unsure if he should knock or just walk in like Inaho. He opted to do both. He knocked twice, and as he slowly opened the door, he heard the most intimidating booming voice of the entire school- Professor Cruhteo’s.

 

“Slaine Troyard”, the voice called from within the room. All Slaine wanted to do at that point was to turn around and run home in fear and embarrassment.

 

What happened next is better left unsaid. It involved mockery from both Professor Cruhteo and the rest of the class. Slaine took his seat by the window after the class had had a good laugh with him as the main attraction. He bit back his tears, swallowed his pride, and looked out the window.

 

“That damn orange will pay for this,” he vowed as homeroom resumed.

 

///

 

At lunch time, Slaine’s classmates did not approach him and those that walked by his desk, made sure to mock him in one way or another.

 

Finally, one of his classmates called out, “oi, lazy runt, there’s a guy looking for you”.

 

Slaine looked at the familiar burnet boy from earlier now standing right outside his classroom door. Slaine stood and walked over thanking his classmate on the way.

 

“Yes?”

 

“I’m here to show you where the cafeteria is”, Inaho said with the same plain voice he’d been using all morning.

 

“I get the feeling more bad luck will befall upon me if I follow you”, snapped Slaine.

 

“You will have worse fate if you have nothing to eat”, Inaho replied. “I noticed you were only carrying your school bag and it is not big enough to carry books and a box lunch.” As Slaine didn’t seem to be swayed, Inaho added “what do you have to loose bat?” as he turned around and began walking down the hall.

 

“My dignity, it seems”, Slaine murmured as he hesitantly gave in with a loud sigh.

 

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Inaho said in a low voice, “at least now you have interest in eating”.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing”, he said more loudly as he made a turn and stepped though a double door and onto the cafeteria.

 

///

 

The school cafeteria was packed with students with money clenched in their hands. “Purchasing lunch at the cafeteria is like buying groceries on sale at the supermarket”, Inaho explained as he stepped behind the largest crowd of students.

 

“Huh?”

 

“You’ll have to push through,” responded Inaho as he forcefully took Slaine’s wrist and dragged him through the crowd. Somewhere among the bodies, their hands were slapped and separated. The movement of the crowd and the constant pushing and shoving threw Slaine out of the crowd. As soon as he was out of the crowd, he fell on all four and took a deep breath which he now realized he had been desperately needed by his lungs. After regaining his breath, he stood up and looked around. Inaho was nowhere to be seen. “I guess I’ll have to go without lunch today”, he sighed. He really was getting tired of Inaho’s mistreatment of him. Was this what every transfer student had to endure?

 

“Too much to handle?” a cheerful voice came from behind Slaine. He turned around to be greeted by the blonde girl he had been desperately hoping to meet on campus.

 

“Princess Asseylum!” he exclaimed as his heart-beat quickened.

 

“It really has been such a long time Slaine. Please don’t call me by that old nickname. We’re not kids anymore,” she giggled.

 

“It really is so great you see you again, Asseylum,” Slaine chocked out as he shook his head.

 

“It’s great to see you too, Slaine. I was thrilled to hear you would be joining this school…”

Slaine smiled as he watched her continue to speak. She was extremely beautiful. Her blonde hair was bright and pretty like the sun on a cloudless morning, while her eyes were a fresh green like the green of freshly watered plants in summer. As his eyes were still studying the frame of her face, she gave a surprised look his way and stopped talking. Slaine could see a shadow beside his left cheek and felt something poke it soon after.

 

He turned around to see a disheveled Inaho hold out a sandwich for him.

 

“Wait, t-this is for me?” Slaine asked confused by the food being shoved at his face. The brunet nodded and Slaine took the sandwich.

 

“Oh! Inaho-san! You’re such a kind person!” Asseylum exclaimed as she dropped her hands and gave them the bright smile that Slaine had so desperately missed. Her smile was contagious and Slaine found himself smiling as well.

 

“Magbaredge assigned him to me this morning, so I’m just doing my job”, he said as he fixed his tie and hair.

 

“Knowing her, she probably just told you to walk him to class or something and not to buy him lunch. You really are such a kind person, Inaho-san. Thank you for looking out for my friend,” she said.

 

It wasn’t until then that Slaine realized that Inaho had not been assigned to help him beyond finding his class. Even though he had Slaine work, encounter a bat, be humiliated, and be shoved; he probably hadn’t meant it. Maybe orange was not as bad as he thought.

 

“Thank you very much Inaho, for all your help,” said Slaine as he slightly gave a bow.

 

Inaho’s face remained as blank as ever, but in reality he was troubled. He had never seen Slaine thank him like a servant would his-

 

“Asseylum!” a pig tails blonde tackled Asseylum from behind and put her hands on Asseylum’s shoulders. “Rayet got her lunch, let’s go!”

 

“Okay, Nina, but…”

 

Inko and Rayet both approached as Asseylum was about to give introductions. Inko had a look of curiosity and Rayet a look of complete annoyance.

 

“Hey, Rayet, Inko, have either of you met Slaine, yet?” asked Asseylum with a bright smile on her face.

 

“Yeah, he’s the lazy kid who got the death blow from Cruhteo for being late”, said Rayet with an evil smirk on her face.

 

It was then that Slaine realized the marron haired girl was one of his classmates. He blushed a bit and lowered his eyes, smile long gone.

 

“Rayet! You’re supposed to say something positive!” Nina said as she nudged Rayet on the shoulder.

 

Asseylum shook her head and then said, “Slaine, these are my friends, Nina, Inko, and Rayet. And this, is my friend Slaine. He was my friend when we were little. He moved a lot, so this is the first time we talk since probably age ten!”

 

Slaine was about to mention the letters they had exchanged, when the girls greeted him. After a short standard conversation that included the typical questions such as “what class are you in” and “did you come from abroad?” the girls finally waved their good byes and left Inaho and Slaine alone once more.

 

“You should start eating that as we start walking to class. There isn’t much time left,” Inaho offered as he began walking out of the cafeteria with Slaine following suit.

 

“Yeah, okay”, Slaine said as he took a bite off the sandwich Inaho had given him. Then it dawned on him, “wait, where’s your lunch?”

 

“I left it in my classroom,” was Inaho’s simple answer.

 

“Why didn’t you bring it with you?! Now you’ll have less time to eat because of me.”

 

“I could have done that… Don’t put the blame on yourself. It just means that you should eat your lunch with me there.”

 

After a few minutes walking in silence, they finally reached Inaho’s classroom, 1-C. When they stepped through the door, and walked towards Inaho’s desk, they were greeted by two boys.

 

“Hey Inaho! Who’s that with you?”

 

“Uhm, hi my name is-”

 

“He’s Slaine. Slaine, this is Calm and Okisuke”, Inaho interrupted and with that short introduction, took his seat.

 

Slaine gave him a frown, but then looked around for a place to seat.

 

“Here, you can take my seat, Slaine”, Calm offered as he stood up and sat on his desk.

 

“No, I don’t-”

 

“It’s okay. I like sitting in my desk more anyway. It gives me this cool guy status automatically.”

They ate their lunch while talking about nothing in particular. It mostly involved Calm asking Slaine to rate and talk about the girls he met in the countries he had lived in. The rest of the day flew by as well, and soon it was time to go home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for that UFE thing, I just really wanted to do it. I know it seems forced. /(o_o)\ Don't hit me.
> 
> Chapter 1 is completely done! I'll be back in a week (or less)! I'm considering reformatting the chapters... so there's probably like 21 chapters instead of 14. This little thing took me forever to type up. My fingers are crying. How do you people do this? 
> 
> BTW, upcoming chapters aren't necessarily as lengthy. They are as long as they need to be to tell the story. 
> 
> Again, let me know if you spotted some mistakes.


	3. September- First Week

Once home, Slaine checked the home voice message machine as he fetched a snack from the kitchen. Even though Slaine and his father still owned their house from six years ago, Slaine’s father was not living in it with Slaine. This made voice messaging their only way of interacting with each other.  


His father’s lab and office were both on the other side of town, and there was nothing that could separate the man from his work. It had always been this way though. The only way for them to talk to each other was through phone calls and voice messages. It had always been this way.

_There really is no problem_. Slaine thought as he continued denying how lonely it felt.

“Slaine, your professors Cruhteo and Saazbaum are both colleagues of mine. I have convinced them to let you join the Shinawara High School’s robotics’ club. Usually, the only ones allowed in are those students with really high grades, but they understand that your grades may not be as high from the get go since we just now moved here. They want you to start attending the meetings next week. Make the proper preparations. If there’s nothing else, then goodnight.”

 

///

 

“Huh? You won’t be joining our club?” Calm asked, disappointed. Inko, Nina, Rayet, Asseylum, Calm, Okisuke, Inaho, and Slaine were all sitting together in classroom 1-C during lunch. The only ones who didn't belong in that class were Rayet and Slaine, so there wasn’t a big problem with sitting arrangements during the lunch period.

“I thought our great personalities had convinced you. Oh well, the Versian Robo club is a more top-notch and encouraged club so I see where you’re coming from.”

“Why are none of you in it except for Asseylum?” asked Slaine.

“Calm, Okisuke, Nina, and Rayet don’t have the high grades they require. And, even though I do have the grades, I’m too busy with student council”, answered Inko as she brought a juice box up to her lips. “Also, Inaho was kicked out when he joined”, she added with a teasing smile.

“Wait, why didn’t they accept Inaho? Isn’t he top of your class?”

“He was accepted… for about a week, but he pissed them off”, Calm told Slaine. He continued as he waved his chopsticks around, “apparently tenth graders can’t really do much other than observe. But Inaho here, decided it would be a fine idea to tell the seniors that their plans for their robotic competition sucked. Apparently, as he was lecturing them, they got really mad and kicked him out. You don’t mess with the upper class-men, I tell you”. Calm shook his head with now folded arms.

Slaine broke out in to a laugh and the rest of his new friends followed suit. Well, with the exception of Inaho who continued eating as he stared at the pale blonde. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny chapter is tiny. It's not even a chapter.... more like a paragraph...sigh...sorry. (;__;) It'll make sense once I put up the rest of the chapters. 
> 
> Also, I miscalculated and now I'm stuck in finals week. I have the next chapter written... but not typed... and I didn't realize how long typing takes... I won't be able to update until after Saturday. (;__;) But after Saturday, my fingers are going to have a violent party with my computer's keyboard. I promise. Also, many of you readers are probably in finals week too. So, stop procrastinating and go study!! FIGHTIN'!!


End file.
